A 71-year-old laborer from Battambang province has confessed to raping his 7-year-old granddaughter and threatening to kill her if she reported the assault, police said on Wednesday.
The grandfather was arrested at his home in Banan district’s Cheng Meanchey commune on Tuesday after his wife noticed blood on the girl’s legs and filed a complaint with police accusing him of beating and raping the child on two occasions over the weekend, deputy district police chief Thong Thin said.
The girl told police “the suspect threatened to kill her and her grandmother if she dared to tell her,” Mr. Thin said.
The girl was living with her grandparents after her parents divorced and her mother moved to Phnom Penh for work, he said. Oun Sai, chief of the provincial police’s serious crimes bureau, said the suspect had been detained at the provincial police headquarters and would be questioned today by provincial court officials.
Police took the girl to a provincial referral hospital for a medical checkup.
